Prison sentence lacking in justice

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 18, 2007

His affair with a student has cost former Seminole High School music instructor Daniel Zdrodowski his career in teaching, as well it should. But his 5 1/2-year prison sentence speaks to a different kind of danger - that of using laws aimed at sexual predators to prosecute a case where there is no clear victim.

At the sentencing hearing Friday, the dozens of teachers, parents and students who spoke on Zdrodowski's behalf were joined by two whose pleas for mercy are hard to ignore. One was the young woman herself, who turned 18 in December, roughly eight months after their sexual encounter. The other, more notably, was her mother, who said she was not happy when she first found out about the relationship. "But," she told the court, "I can see that they belong together."

Who, then, is the victim in this case?

Not only did Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe refuse to consider a lesser charge in the case, his attorneys were so zealous in their prosecution they actually sought in May to throw the student in jail for refusing to testify against the teacher. If McCabe was trying to protect a young and vulnerable victim, how could his office have subjected her to such harsh tactics? To her credit, Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley refused to hold the student in contempt.

At sentencing, McCabe also objected to any punishment less than the 5 1/2-year prison term prescribed under state guidelines. Ley, in turn, followed the guideline - even though it was blind to the unusual circumstances in play. In this case, the girl and her mother fought prosecution. The boyfriend is 11 years older. He and the girl claim to be in love, to have considered marriage and to have ended their relationship until she was to turn 18. Can a state that should be focused on violent crime really afford to find a space in its prisons for Zdrodowski?

The prosecutor is right that Zdrodowski violated a public trust when he developed a romantic relationship with a student. That's one reason the Pinellas school system moved so quickly to investigate the original allegation, which came from another student, and why he lost his privilege to teach.

The real issue here is whether laws designed to protect children from sexual predators are the tools by which to judge more complicated affairs that involve the consent of both parties and both families involved. At the point a prosecutor seeks to throw a young woman in jail for refusing to behave like a victim, maybe someone needs to step back and look at the larger picture. Who is the victim here?

[Last modified July 17, 2007, 22:20:28]